Story
Thank you for visiting my Lesotho Trek Challenge page. I am pleased to inform that I successfully completed the challenge achieving all the targets.
Children shouting “Shoot me, shoot me”, beautiful scenery, serene mountains, friendly locals, children with illuminating smiles, Volker’s uplifting drumming and trekkers singing by the bonfire every night, beautiful galaxy of stars in the sky, small wet & cold tents, walking on red soil with beautiful fragrance, crossing numerous rivers, climbing countless mountains and excellent team spirit everyday, are few of many things that reminds me of my brief encounter with Lesotho. It was an overwhelming experience especially the perfectly synchronised impromptu concert by the school children on our last day in Lesotho and the visit to Cotlands Orphanage in Johannesburg .
Our visit to Cotlands (http://www.cotlands.org/) was a moving experience, especially when we went to the nursery unit full of toddlers seeking the attention. The branch of Cotlands that we visited looks after orphans from 0-7yrs, there were 42 children at this branch and most of them are HIV positive. These children are provided care until they are 7 and those that survive are either adopted out or moved to another branch of Cotlands.
Now some facts:
We left London on 12th April, reached Johannesburg on the 13th. We pretty much straightaway boarded a coach for our next bit of journey to Lesotho which took ~6hrs. With the clouds promising heavy rain we had a very quick lunch by a road side before we started our 6km trek. We trekked and camped for next 6 days.
Our day started everyday at 6.30am with exception of the day 6 which started at 6am. We walked a roughly 95km over six and half days, achieving total elevation of 2124mts. The longest day we walked (12 hrs) was day 6, covering just under 20km and reaching the height of 3109mts having achieved an elevation of ~1100mts. This also was the day when we walked in the sun, hailstorm, rain and just over an hour in dark. Day 5 was not far behind in terms of distance and number of hours walked (17km, 9.5hrs, 900mts elevation).
We had one free day to ourselves when we were given an accommodation in a national park resort and the feeling of excitement was injected in the group to find a proper bed/pillow, hot shower (after 7 days of baby wipes shower!!!) and a place big enough to put your bag without having to compromise your sleeping space!
On these challenges I go in with an attitude to “expect the unexpected” (within a roughly set parameter) and deal with the situation when it arises. Although day 6 (and 5) was very hard on my knees and the pain got unbearable at times, I truly enjoyed the day which had all the ingredients of a real adventure – climbing steep mountains requiring us often to use hands and feet at times, steep descend sometimes requiring to slide on our bottoms, jumping a 8ft drop into a river bed (with help from guys) and crossing countless number of rivers, walking in the dark, crossing a river in the dark with ropes for safety, etc. Day 6 (and all other days) tested my physical as well as mental strength (esp. my determination to deal with my fears) but more importantly it left me with an amazing feeling of satisfaction and truly having earned the sponsorship!
Finally, you may wish to check out the following:
Lesotho Trek video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBb6v3m6yD8
Lesotho Trek: http://brief-encounters-ice2aag.blogspot.com/2007/06/my-brief-encounter-with-lesotho.html
Once again thank you for your support!
Kindest regards,
Bhumi